eat MORE or eat LESS

eat enough to give u energy, but make sure they are not empty calories. if u eat right u can still eat plenty and then ur running will take care of the rest. so basicaly best thing to do is eat plenty but of all the right foods, then just run.

im pretty sure you are over thinking this.

eat healthy foods throughout the day: a variety of vegetables, plant protein, dairy, whole grains, lean meats, fruit, etc.

eat frequently

don't stuff yourself and don't restrict yourself; eat when you're hungry

run

your body will find its optimal weight

eat more food, dont listen to the people who say you need to lose weight. you're overthinking this and the whole idea that the lighter you are the faster you'll move. thats onyl true if youre already carrying unnecesary weight (a lot of extra water weight, heavy clothing/shoes, having eaten a large meal just before you ran, etc.).

you solved the case for yourself when you said you die out earlier in the season off little food. even if you eat a large amount of food you still burn it off and the energy that you get from the food is more efficient than running on little food because you have more energy to use.

as a high mileage runner, and a college runner nonetheless, you need A LOT of energy to be able to not only compete at the highest level but also to be able to function properly. if your doing anywhere from 60 mpw and upwards of that you'd most likely need bare minimum 3000 calories but closer to 4000-5000 with more mileage.

just eat healthy and dont eat empty calories like a previous poster said. dont aganonize over your weight,

have a balanced diet and dont try starving yourself to lose weight. a classic example is the website someone posted a few weeks ago about a female college runner who she and her team went through the same thing your talking about; they though they'd do better if they weighed less.

i'm also an example of what happens when you dont eat; i thought that if i lost weight it would help my running (lighter=faster was the mindset). i was doing around 50-60 mpw and not eating nearly as much as i should have to the point where after a mile of say an 8 mile run I'd feel exhausted and couldnt hold my normal training pace. not only was i extremely exhausted and couldnt run at my normal pace anymore but i started getting sick, injured and was just doing poorly. i became anemic and it destroyed my entire year i was so malnourished. in fact, it got to the point that in order to function semi-normally my body starting taking its nutrients from muscle and bone (it literally ate itself). i havent been able to run more than 8 mpw in months before my shins start hurting so much to the point that i cant walk. then i'm layed up again in the pool for another 3 weeks. bone takes a VERY long time to heal so dont try what i did, keep eating.

Indoor and outdoor season of 2010 I lost a lot of weight thinking I would get faster. It started by eating only "healthy" foods, but evolved to eating barley anything. I was running about 75 miles per week on very low calories (sometimes less than 2000). The want to eat healthy evolved to a want to be light, and I was obsessed with my weight, dropping from 135 pounds to 117 (I am a 5'5 male). Although I did pr, I was weak, tired, depressed, cold, and hungry. I know if I were stronger I would have run so much faster. I had no strength or muscle, and was inconsistent. Worst of all after outdoor I lost motivation and was burnt out mentally and physically. By April thankfully I finally woke up and started eating again, but it wasn't until summer until I started feeling healthy again. It was an interesting experience, and I'm glad I have the knowledge about it. Now I eat a lot, and am still 130-135 pounds, and I feel great while running and all other times too. (and I love running again!)

So basically don't restrict you diet, you can eat a lot and be fit. Make sure it is real foods that give you energy. Your body will adapt due to your running.

went through it wrote:

Indoor and outdoor season of 2010 I lost a lot of weight thinking I would get faster. It started by eating only "healthy" foods, but evolved to eating barley anything.

Barley will not help you much, especially if you add in hops.

Similar situation as to the above posters happened to me. Going into my senior year of high school I desperately wanted to improve for my last cross country season. I thought that if I ate super healthy all summer while putting in more miles than ever before (which was not that many as I was a pretty low mileage runner to begin with), on top of having a full time, energy-draining job as a camp counselor, that I would reach my goals. However, although I thought I was eating more than enough, I had become so strict with my diet that my running started to suffer, as well as my daily life. I thought that eating between 2500-3000 calories a day was sufficient (I was very conscience about gaining weight), but that obviously wasn't enough. I started to feel extremely tired on all of my runs as well as during the day at work. My legs started to ache all of the time. I blamed it on the heat and dehydration, which may have been part of it, but I wouldn't budge on my diet. Come cross country season I had probably lost close to ten pounds, and my season was ruined as I was racing terribly. I could barely even finish some races. I later found out that I was very anemic (ferritin of 9 ng/ml). This probably resulted from not getting the right nutrients the entire summer. I eventually started eating a lot more (of the right foods though) and since have been running better than ever.

Calories matter, but nutrient density matters too.

There is a difference between eating 3000 calories of soda, pizza, subway vs 3000 calories of greens, lean meats ans fish, fruits and veggies, whole grains.

Don't worry about your weight during training. A few pounds above racing weight is good to get through high mileage training. Then about 3 weeks to a month out from your peak race, as you cut back miles and increase intensity you can also lose a few pounds to get to racing weight.

Read Matt Fitzgerald's "Racing Weight".

First thing is to be rational about targets. If you're a skinny college kid already you don't need to lose weight. If you can pinch more than an inch, or your running shorts are visibly cutting into soft flesh, maybe you have a little fat to lose. Better still, get % body fat measured and check a few norms.

The main people who actually may need to lose fat are (a) returning masters athletes who spent ten years getting fat at some point and (b) students who spent a summer drinking too much beer and put on a few pounds. Both groups tend to know it!

You can lose about 1lb per week and train OK (though perhaps not at absolute peak effort). It's easiest to do in a period of base training as you don't need to be at 100% for sessions.

Next thing is to watch your strength while dieting. IMHO all athletes should have some element of strength and conditioning in their schedule. Now if you have some means of testing your strength or power, like a regular hill you sprint up, or a couple of sets of squats in the gym, you have a great safeguard. If you find that your squats are dropping in weight or your 150s are getting slower, you know that you have gone too far and need to eat more, rest more or both. Conversely, if you're running OK mileage and gaining leg strength each week, you're on the right track.

You should eat enough so that you don't (frequently) feel hungry - but you want to eat good quality food and cut out the crap. Fatty and sugary stuff will add calories without making you feel full.

Eat: lots of fruit, veg, salad, beans, pulses; a reasonable amount of *lean* meat (or fish), eggs, brown bread, brown rice, brown pasta.

Easy on the booze - lots of calories, nothing nutritionally useful and it stimulates appetite.

eat SAME